Player vs. Player

In World of Warcraft, Player vs. Player (commonly abbreviated PvP) denotes combat between players of any kind such as:

Dueling - One versus one combat in a controlled environment. This cannot be done in cities. However, small towns and the areas immediately outside the entrances to capital cities are very popular for dueling.

Battlegrounds - Horde versus Alliance combat in a competitive environment. Before Patch 3.3.3 they rewarded 'marks' for the appropriate battleground, which were used as a sort of currency to purchase rewards from PvP vendors.

Arena PvP System - Organized on-going tournament that allow for matches that take place in instanced controlled environments between players of the same faction as well as the opposing. Available in 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 formats. Players create teams and boost their Team Rating to earn Arena Points by beating similarly rated teams.

Random PvP - Whenever a player character comes across another player character of the opposing faction whose PvP flag is turned on (on PvP realms this flag will switch on whenever you go outside the low-level zones that your faction controls, although it can still be activated in these zones, or Sanctuary areas) that player can attack the other. This was often called "World PvP" before the introduction of zone-specific PvP combat goals, and often still is called by this name.

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Honor Points

Killing players of an opposing faction that is the same level, a higher level, or up to eight levels lower will gain a player Honor Points. Killing players of too low-level will result in zero honor and is usually considered a form of poor sportsmanship.

As of Patch 3.3.3, battleground marks are no longer obtained from completing battlegrounds, instead the amount of honor gained has increased and one can trade in their old marks for 185 honor each.

Arena Points

There are three categories of Arena teams: 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5. Any player can be a member of one or more Arena teams, but only one of each type. For example, you cannot be a member of more than one 2v2 Arena team at any one given time but you may leave your current Arena Team using the /teamquit {2v2, 3v3, 5v5} command before joining a new team.

Arena points are awarded at the end of each week based on your Arena Team's rating. Your Arena Team rating raises or lowers based on the games played by the Arena team. Obviously, winning will boost your team's rating and losing (even if by forfeit due to leaving the arena prematurely, disconnecting and/or not joining a queued game) will lower your team's rating.

You need to play at least 30% of the total arena matches your team participates in for the week to be eligible for being awarded Arena Points at the end of the week. For example, if you played three games but your team played a total of 11 games for the week, you will not receive any Arena Points after the weekly update. Only the highest Arena Points from your 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 teams will be awarded to you each week. So if you are getting more points from your 3v3 team based on its Arena Team rating, you will receive Arena Points based on your 3v3 team and none from your 2v2 nor 5v5 teams.

PvP Tokens

Killing players in some specific locations in Outland can also give the player PvP Tokens such as Mark of Honor Hold, Mark of Thrallmar and Halaa Battle Token. These work similar to Marks of Honor but can be redeemed only at PVP vendors of the faction the token is specific to. For example, only PVP vendors associated with Honor Hold sell PVP items for Marks of Honor Hold.

Generally, PVP tokens offer items which are aimed at players who are below level 70.

PvP Rewards

Prior to release Patch 2.0, players needed to attain a PvP rank or reach a certain reputation with a PvP faction to be able to purchase items from a PvP vendor with gold. Generally, it took much time and effort to obtain the rank and reputation need to purchase the best epic items available and few players were able put forth the massive effort.

After Patch 2.0, this system was replaced with a token system whereby players accumulate Marks of Honor, PvP tokens, and Honor Points to use as currency to buy PvP items from various PvP vendors. Technically these purchasable items are no longer PvP Rewards, per se.

If you dislike Alliance-favored population imbalance, research has shown that the population of PvE realms are much more prone to be Alliance weighted, with population ratios often hovering around 2:1. PvP realms are more often 1:1.[citation needed]

Cons

Some players consider being able to play with no risk of random player vs. player combat less stressful. You can level and train skills without the types of interruptions listed below.

Such disruptive practices like corpse camping, griefing, ganking can be exceedingly prevalent on PvP realms, many high level players may repeatedly and incessantly engage in these behaviors for no obvious reason other than that they can.

PvP realm changes in Mists of Pandaria

Guards were weakened and have an increased re-spawn timer on PvP realms to encourage more world PvP.[1]

Flying

Although players cannot fly while flagged as "in combat", the ability to fly has always proven to be an easy getaway to avoid PvP for higher level players. Also, because flying players cannot be attacked easily in most cases, it provides an unfair scouting advantage for the ground-bound.

PvP changes for flying in Mists of Pandaria

In the plan for Mists of Pandaria is the addition of an item usable by players on the ground to dismount a flying PvP flagged enemy player (within a reasonable range).[2] Specifics have not been detailed yet.

Media

Videos

References

Tom Chilton - We know that for many PvPers, the idea of getting a large raid (or two) together to invade a city is something that can make for great world PvP. We also know that there has been an issue with guards causing this to be a less appealing undertaking for them as the guards have gotten stronger. We obviously want those guards there doing their jobs, but we don’t want them to be the wall that you just can’t get over. So, we are planning to adjust the guards only on PvP realms to where they aren’t quite as strong as you’d find them on a PvE realm, and they won’t respawn quite as quickly either. We’re still working on this, but we hope to get this adjustment in before the release of Mists of Pandaria. It’s worth noting that the guards on PvE realms will remain the same as they are now.

What about the use of flying mounts? Many players are concerned about the use of flying mounts to avoid having to ever engage in PvP on PvP realms.Tom Chilton - We know this is a concern and we have some things in mind for helping in this regard. First, we’re limiting the use of flying mounts within Mists of Pandaria to level 90. Second, with so many players taking part in the quest hubs, we think we’ll see a lot more PvP happening out in the world. After all, you have to land sometime. If that’s not enough though, we have an item that we’re adding to the game that players will be able to use from the ground that makes it possible to dismount a flying enemy player (within a reasonable range and PvP flagged). We’re still discussing the particulars of how this item will be available.